Born Again
by Universe
Summary: Sequel to The Price of Arrogance. Frieza has difficulty accepting the fact that he's dead, and has to re-live a few frightening times in his life. But then he finds hope when he realizes he can be born again... (surprise ending!) ~this was deleted for som


Born Again

King Kold turned his head and looked at the monitor, then the machine that provided the breathing that Frieza could no longer do on his own. His red eyes followed the aqua colored tube to the pale throat where it was attached, then moved to look at the pale face, black lips and closed eyes. "No son of mine is going to spend the rest of his life like this."

The doctor was slowly coming around, and stood up. "Sire?"

Slowly, Kold reached for the plastic joint where the tubing was attached into Frieza's throat and carefully removed it with a soft click. The click seemed to echo in Frieza's ears. There was a faint hiss as the air in Frieza's lungs rushed out, then nothing. The only sound was the beeping of the monitor, and that sound seemed to echo as well.

"What are you doing!?" The doctor's voice echoed as he rushed to re-attach the tube, but Kold kicked him in the side, sending him back to the ground without a word. Then he turned and stared down at Frieza.

Frieza watched what his father did, and watched as the wire attaching him to the form on the table suddenly broke, sending him drifting off like a balloon that had escaped the grasp of its owner. A single tear escaped down his face as he floated away and faded into the darkness of eternity...

"Open your eyes, Frieza." The voice was familiar, but Frieza kept his eyes tightly shut.

"No! It's so dark...what does it matter?" Frieza replied and shook his head violently while covering his face with his delicate white hands. He could still hear the monitor beeping in the background, echoing itself indefinitely. The sound was piercing to his ears. It made the small Icejin want to claw his ears right off the sides of his head.

"Are you really so afraid of death that you won't even look at it when it's staring you in the face? What is it that you really fear?" The voice came closer. It was a husky, girlish voice...his own voice. "Could it be that you fear ceasing to exist?"

"Shut up you! You don't know ANYTHING!!!" Frieza's head shook again, the purple armor plate on his scalp glittering slightly. "Leave me alone before I decide to..." He growled when he realized that he couldn't threaten the voice with death, because whoever was speaking was obviously already dead. 

"...before I decide to make you suffer...?" The voice finished his sentence for him. "Really, Frieza...you couldn't hurt me if you tried." There was a soft laugh, then more speaking, "Life is a book."

"What?"

"Life is a book." There was a pause, then, "Several thoughts form the shape of a letter. Several letters make a word. Several words make a sentence. Several sentences make a paragraph. Several paragraphs make a page. Several pages make a chapter. And several chapters make the book." Another pause, "Every second, every minute, every hour, every day and every year of your life is a story that writes itself."

With his eyes still shut tightly and his head lowered, Frieza hissed, "Stop talking riddles to me and make some SENSE!!!!!"

"If you open your eyes, you will see what I am talking about."

"You had better not be tricking me!" He spat.

"Trust me..." Replied the voice.

Frieza's black lips parted as he let a sigh escape from between them. The soft white lids of his eyes slowly lifted to show ruby orbs which darted in all directions. Reflected in his eyes were images of the hallway just outside the door to the room where his body was laying. He could still hear the monitor echoing, but further away. People were walking around and through him like he wasn't even there, and the entire area seemed to be filled with mist or steam.

Frustrated, he stomped his foot and moved to take a step when he nearly tripped over something on the ground. He blinked, looked down and saw a leather-bound purple book under his white three-toed foot. "What the?" As soon as Frieza bent down to pick the book up, it flew open on it's own like a blast of wind had struck it. The pages fluttered and rustled before finally flipping to the last page. He watched in shock as letters slowly seemed to appear like a ghost was typing them onto the page. Each time a new letter appeared, it would give off a faint ray of white light before fading to a dull goldish-white glow.

"As you can see, your book is still writing itself."

Frieza jerked his head up to see something purple coming closer in the mist before him. Then, all of a sudden, he watched a pale face with ruby eyes, ebony lips and pale lavender skin step into view. Black horns shimmered on either side of the ornate purple dome of his head. Purple armor adorned his upper body and seemed to glint in the strange lighting.

Frightened at seeing an image of his first form, Frieza jerked back, "S-stay away from me!" He kept backing away from the image of himself, and because he wasn't looking over his shoulder, he backed right into something.

"Going somewhere, Frieza?" A deep voice asked.

Frieza spun around to find himself looking up at a seven-and-a-half foot tall figure with thick muscles, a face and horns much like the smaller one that had appeared to him before. The only difference was the horns bent to point upwards rather then straight out.

"What is going on here!?" the small Icejin shrieked, stepping back again. He bumped into something else and spun to face it.

Red eyes stared at him and a nose-less face with an impossibly wide grin appeared in the mist. The skull was elongated, and spikes jutted out of the creature's back. Rather then lay flat, the shoulders stood up like some kind of natural armor. When it spoke, the voice seemed distorted between the large shape and the smaller one that had spoken first, "You are scared, Frieza..."

Shaking his head as he backed up, Frieza clutched the purple book to his chest and squeezed his eyes shut. "This isn't happening! This can't be!" He jerked his hands up to cover his face again, the book dropped from his hands and fell open at his feet. The pages rustled to the one where the words were appearing, and Frieza fell to his knees so he could look at it.

Somewhere in the distance, Frieza could still hear the monitor beeping. A new letter appeared on the page with each soft, echoing beep. Then, all of a sudden, the echoing beeps became a steady tone, and periods started to appear across the page instead of letters or words.

"No!" Frieza cried, clawing at the page as if he could stop the progress of the periods as they appeared. "No..." He whispered again as they continued on until they reached the edge of the page. No more appeared after that, and the dull goldish-white glow of the letters brightened briefly like twinkling stars before fading to the same black color as ink. Frieza laid his delicate white hand flat over the page, closed his eyes and lowered his head until his forehead was touching the back of his hand. "No...this doesn't have to end...it doesn't have to end!" He moved his hand to cover his face, and when he did, the book snapped shut on it's own accord.

Jerking his head up, Frieza tore the book open to a random page. As soon as he did, the mist around him started swirling until it became a vortex. Next thing he knew, he was being sucked down a swirling, twisting tunnel of blue and white light. It spit him out again near a planet, and he watched a huge orange ball of ki suddenly inflate near a ship in the distance. The ball started to move towards the planet, and he started to laugh as he watched until he realized that the scenery had very swiftly changed.

Spinning to look up, Frieza saw the Deathball was heading straight for him!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" He screamed, dropping the book as he threw his arms up in front of his face in attempt to shield himself. The book dropped to the ground and snapped shut again. The second that happened, Frieza found himself in the exact spot where he'd been when he opened the book, and he slowly took his arms away from his face.

"That's what the people you killed felt when you destroyed that planet." It was the voice of whatever had taken on the shape of Frieza's first form. "It's a funny thing...you're so afraid to die, yet you don't fear dealing death out to others."

"I'm NOT DEAD!!!!! I WOULDN'T BE HERE IF I WAS!!!!!!" 

"Keep dreaming, Frieza." The figure replied with a soft laugh before turning away.

"Who are you? Why do you look like me?"

"I can't tell you who I really am right now, Frieza. But for the sake of something to call me, just call me the First." He said, then turned and continued walking.

Frieza's purple carapace shimmered as he shook his head and opened the book again to another random page. The vortex swirled again, purple this time, until it dropped him off in a clean room with three other Icejins. He recognized his father and Coola right away, though they were much younger in appearance. The third was a stranger to him, so he crept closer to see who it was.

The third Icejin was lying naked on her back, breathing heavily with both hands on the pregnant dome of her stomach. She had to be as tall as Kold, or at least very close, and she looked just like Coola with just a few differences. For one, her upper body was completely smooth and purple like her arms and legs, and the armor plate on her forehead glittered like an amethyst. Her face and lips were the most delicate things he had ever seen.

"It's alright, Lady Chylla." A doctor was speaking, but the Icejin woman known as Chylla was in too much pain to listen and wound up just batting him aside.

"M-mother?" Frieza whispered, then turned when he heard a wet sloshing noise. He watched as the outlines of two tiny hands appeared in the skin of the woman's swollen abdomen, causing her to moan in pain. 

All of a sudden, Chylla started to cry and claw at her stomach as it visibly began to swell outwards even more. Her cries grew louder as her abdomen grew. Then, suddenly, a white ki blast ripped through the skin, causing blood, flesh and a few inner organs to fly out through the bloody hole that had been created. Chylla's cries became screams while King Kold and Coola stepped back in shock.

"MOTHERRRRRRRR!" Frieza cried with wide eyes.

Two pale hands, covered in blood, were still poised from where the ki blast had shot from. They moved to grasp the slimy edges of ragged flesh, and very slowly, a small head emerged from the bloody mess. Pieces of Chylla's uterus were impaled on the infant's shiny black horns, and she could only glance at the baby once before her head dropped back against the pillow. The pale newborn slowly emerged, crawled up to the gurgling woman's heaving breasts and latched it's blood-stained black lips onto her nipple. As the tiny newborn suckled, Chylla's mouth fell open and began to ooze blood, but the infant on her chest didn't seem to care. It just continued to suckle, even as the breasts it was feeding from stopped their heaving motions. It's beady red eyes opened and seemed to look right up at Frieza.

"NOOOOOO!!!!!!!" The book dropped from his hands and snapped shut as it hit the ground with a dull thump. "NO! No, no, no...I wouldn't kill my own mother!" Frieza covered his face and sobbed, falling to his knees. He didn't even notice that he was back in the place he had started from, with people walking through and around him in the mist.

"But you did..." The figure that resembled Frieza's second form spoke as he stepped from the shadows.

"You didn't know what you were doing. It was just instinct." Came the distorted voice of the figure that had taken on the appearance of Frieza's third form.

"Shut up!!" Frieza cried, still horrified by the image of those tiny eyes looking up at him. "You didn't see how it looked up at me!" He covered his face again, his body heaving with sobs. "Papa never told me that _I_ killed mother...he just said she died when I was born..."

The two figures that looked like Frieza's second and third forms suddenly looked up, then stepped aside as another figure appeared in the mist.

"Frieza, why are you crying?" A soft voice asked. When Frieza just continued to sob, curled up on his knees with his tail wrapped around his body and his hands over his face, the figure knelt down beside him. He felt warm, strong arms wrap around his sobbing form. A soft kiss was placed gently on his forehead, and the gentle voice spoke again, "Shhhh...hush...it's alright."

Frieza finally opened his tear-filled red eyes to look up at the person who was comforting him. The face that smiled down at him made him want to sob more, but he didn't really know why. "M-mother..." He buried his face in her shoulder, and felt one of her large hands come to rest on the back of his head while the other held him close. "...I never would have wanted to hurt you..."

Chylla closed her eyes and smiled slightly while she held him. "It was just my time to leave life, Frieza. Just like it was yours." She looked down at the leather book near Frieza's tail and continued, "I forgive you..."

Tears slid down Frieza's face as he reached down for the book and made like he was going to tear out the pages. He stopped himself at the last second, afraid of what would happen if he opened it. "So what happens now? I can't change this book...although there are a few things I wish I could..."

The person that called himself the First appeared next to Frieza long enough to whisper, "Sometimes, when an author finishes one book, he'll move right on to the next."

"What?!" Frieza turned his head and sneered, his teary eyes narrowed, but the First was already gone. "Start a new book? What does he mean?"

Chylla just smiled, and when Frieza faced forward again, there was a blue hardcover book lying at his feet. He picked the book up and stared at it in silent confusion. Chylla reached over and placed a slender hand on his shoulder. "It means you can be born again, Frieza. And you'll be able to make different choices...maybe even get a chance to right some of the wrongs you did in the past," she explained.

"What about you?" He whispered, curling himself back into her arms.

"I'll be here. A lifetime is only a heartbeat to me now." She bent her head down and kissed his forehead softly as she started to rock gently back and forth in the swirling mist.

"Mother?"

"Yes?"

"I..." Frieza bit his lip as he uttered words that he'd never spoken before, "...I love you..."

Chylla smiled and touched his face, "I love you too."

The person that called himself the First stepped from the shadows. "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"One more thing..." He began, "Who are you?"

The First just smiled and simply replied with, "I Am."

Blinking, Frieza rolled his eyes and shook his head as he flipped the book open to see glowing white pages. His ruby eyes started to twinkle as the light illuminated them. 

__

Turn around, look at what you see  
In her face, the mirror of your dream

He tilted his head back, smiling up at Chylla as the light bathed him and made his white skin gleam like the moon, "See you soon." Turning his eyes back to the book, Frieza started to laugh heartily as his body became part of the light until there was nothing left of him but a cloud of glittering white sparkles, and he found himself traveling down a pink tunnel.

__

Make believe I'm everywhere... 

A bright light waited for him at the end, and as he traveled, he slowly started to forget who he was, where he came from and where he had been. Then everything was whiteness.

__

...hidden in the lines

The world spun wildly as he was pulled from silent warmth to noisy cold. He squirmed in the grasp of the hands which held him, crying and screaming until a blanket was wrapped around his shivering little body. Though he couldn't see too well, he knew the next person that held him was his mother.

"Congratulations." A man's voice spoke. "It's a boy."

__

Written on the pages   
Is the answer to the Neverending story  
(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)

Lockers clattered and loud voices echoed in the halls of the school. A pair of boots came to stop near a locker, and a backpack was dropped heavily on the floor. Hands reached in and yanked out the books that wouldn't be needed anymore that day. 

"Lesse...here..." The young man spoke softly to himself.

A running person's shoes squeaked on the tile floor, creating squeaks that sounded like rhythmic beeps on a machine. When the person slid around a corner, the shriek from his shoes created an almost deafening echo in the halls like a strange steady tone. 

Frowning slightly because of the annoying squeak, the young man spun the combination lock on his locker door. The locker was yanked open seconds later, swinging slightly from the force by which it was pulled, and the mirror on the inside of the door reflected images of peach flesh, baggy black pants, a black shirt and a short blue jacket. 

__

Reach the stars, and fly a fantasy

A hand came up to steady the agitated door, and the young man slowly stood until his reflection came into full view. The mirror reflected two pale blue eyes, glittering just below a set of thick light-purple eyebrows. A few locks of matching hair were falling into his eyes, his hand came up to brush them aside. The silky locks stubbornly fell right back into place.

__

Dream a dream, and what you see will be

"Hey Trunks! C'mon, we gotta get home to work on that history project. Let's go!" A dark-haired young man stopped next to a nearby locker and crossed his arms. "What idea did you choose to write about? For your sake, I hope it wasn't something stupid..."

"Nah. Goten, you know I don't pick the stupid boring stuff." Trunks looked over at his best friend and grinned while flicking some of his shiny hair out of his pale eyes.

"So...? C'mon, the suspense is killing me! What did you pick?" Goten, who was just like his father Goku in both appearance and personality, was almost dancing in place in his eagerness to see what they were going to study.

__

Rhymes that keep their secrets...

"This." With a half-grin, Trunks reached behind his backpack to retrieve a book he'd hidden there. Seconds later, he produced a rather new-looking leather-bound purple book with the word 'Reincarnation' written in gold letters across the front. A glint passed through his eyes. "Reincarnation."

__

...will unfold behind the clouds

Rolling his eyes, Goten moaned, "Don't tell me you actually _believe_ in _that_ kind of stuff..."

Trunks shrugged, "You never know." That sound of a steady tone was still echoing around the halls when he straightened with his backpack securely on his back. "Well, we don't actually live until we're born. So the idea I'm writing on is where our spirit is before that happens. Make sense?"

__

And there upon a rainbow   
Is the answer to a Neverending story  
(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)

"No." Goten replied, but he smiled and looked amused, "Weirdo. You ready to go?"

Heaving a sigh, Trunks clutched the book to his chest and glanced back into the empty hall as he kicked his foot out to the side to close his locker. The sound of the steady tone slowly faded into the distance as he turned to Goten and smiled. "Yeah. I'm ready to go."  


__

Show no fear, for she may fade away  
In your hands, the birth of a new day  
Rhymes that keep their secrets   
will unfold behind the clouds  
And there upon the rainbow   
Is the answer to the Neverending story  
(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)  
Story...(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)  
Neverending story...(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)  
Story...(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)  
Neverending story...(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)  
Story...(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)  
Neverending story...(ahhh-ahhh-ahhh)


End file.
